It means Instagram is a great place to increase brand awareness, but also to drive more online sales.

The million-dollar question is:

Where can you find Instagram Marketing tactics that work?

Well, consider yourself very lucky because today I’m going to show seven tactics that will increase your revenue really fast.

Let’s get rolling:

Tactic # 1: Use Instagram Models to Sell More Products

One of the best things about Instagram is amateur models; there are tons of women that constantly publish semi-naked and/or studio style photos.

But before you start thinking I’m a perv, let me explain how those models can increase your sales:

First, models have a TON of followers.

Second, majority of Instagram models aren’t paid but generally they do it just for fun.

Third, if you give them some kind of incentive, they’d happy to promote your products with their audiences.

For instance, let’s say you sell socks.

In that case, you could find ten or fifteen models, send them free socks (plus an iTunes card), and then ask them to upload a photo using your socks and promote your account – according to Neil Patel, around .2% of their followers will follow you.

First, look for at least 20 models who are popular enough to generate attention — I mean, try to find models with at least 15,000 followers.

The easiest way to find them is just heading over to Instagram and using relevant hashtags until you find a good prospect.

When you look for a specific hashtag, Instagram shows you people who have tagged images or videos with that specific hashtag. So, for example, when you search for #modeling, Instagram will show you people who have tagged a photo with #modeling.

Here are the hashtags I’ve had the most success with:

#Modeling

#Model

#Models

Add any model that seems popular to your list.

Note: Avoid celebrities or models who work with big brands. Those kinds of models can attract more attention, but generally they’re expensive.

Once you’ve your list of models in place, you just need to send them your pitch.

Tactic # 2: Leverage Instagram to Position Your Brand

Here’s something we can both agree on:

The best way to position a brand is by telling a story people want to hear, right?

And what better way to tell a story that with visual content?

Our brain is wired to understand images 60,000x faster than text. This means it’s easier that people understand your message when you incorporate visuals in your strategy.

Here’s where Instagram comes in handy.

As you probably know, Instagram is 100% visual, so it gives you a great opportunity to position your brand by sharing images, videos and photos that support your brand’s story.

Let me explain it with some real-world examples:

GoPro wants to position as the most versatile camera in the world – a camera you can mount, wear and love. So they’re telling a great story to achieve that goal.

If you take a look at their profile, you’ll only find photos that evoke a feel of adventure. GoPro’s imagery is full of action – people climbing a mountain, riding a motocross, surfing and even strolling with crocodiles.

And of course, all of them are using GoPro while doing such activities.

GoPro has a clear goal in mind: To become the number one tool for adventurers and action sports lovers. By sharing photos of the camera in action, they’re telling a story their audience want to hear.

On the other hand, Adobe focuses on sharing surrealist art and images that inspire creativity. Their story is also clear: You can create anything you can imagine.

The bottom line:Every brand needs a story that differentiates their products from other brands and Instagram is the best social network to share it. By publishing imagery that support your brand’s story, you can have a better positioning in your audience’s mind.

Tactic # 3: Cross-Promote Profiles to Grow Your Following (Faster)

Most people don’t do it, but cross-promotion is one of the easiest (and fastest) ways to grow your following on any social network. You can ask to someone in your space to tell their followers to follow you, and you can do the same for that person.

Think about it:

What better way to get more followers than featuring your account in front of other people’s audiences?

The problem is that people started to reach out to random accounts asking to cross-promote profiles, so it became a spammy practice.

But when done right, cross-promotion can be really effective.

Here’s a process that works:

Step 1: Find people who target the same kind of audience that you

First, start by looking for people in your industry who are not your competitors. For example, if you’re an SEO agency, you should look for Internet Marketing Agencies that specialize in other aspects, i.e. PPC or Social Media.

Also, look for people who have a similar or slightly higher number of followers that you. This way, they’ll be more likely to accept your offer.

Ready to start finding prospects? Start by following the next steps:

First, head over to Instagram and type in:

# + your main keyword

Then, Instagram will show you people who have tagged images or videos with that specific hashtag.

Start analyzing results and look for people that seem relevant. Add them to your list.

Make sure to have at least 15 people in your list before jumping to the next step.

Step 2: Warm your prospects

The biggest mistake people make when it comes to cross-promoting social accounts is to send their pitch to random people.

It’s much more effective to warm your prospects first. This way, by the moment you send your pitch, they’ll already know you.

Here’s how to warm your prospects:

Follow them on Instagram

Like 2 photos

Comment 2 photos

Repeat the process with each of your prospects.

Note: Make sure to be natural, people can easily detect feigned comments.

Step 3: Send your pitch

If you’ve followed the steps above, this step will be really simple. You just need to reach out to each prospect of your list and make the offer.

You can use this script:

Hey [Name],

Happy Monday!

I was chilling out on Instagram this morning when I came across your image on [something specific about their image or video].

Great stuff!

It’s funny: I noticed we share similar interests, so I thought you might be interested in cross-promote our profiles.

I’ll tell my followers to follow you, and you can do the same thing for me.

Please let me know what you think 🙂

And you’re done!

Tactic # 4: Use Bridge Marketing to Increase Sales

Have you ever heard about bridge marketing?

It’s when you create a “bridge” between your business and a specific niche, so more people can feel attracted to your products or services.

For example, let’s say you’re starting up a business in the food industry and you’re looking for a web design agency to create your website.

While you’re searching, you come across two ads.

The first one says:

And the second ad says:

Which of the two options would you choose?

Probably the second one, right?

Although the second agency can design any kind of website, they built a “bridge” between their business (web design) and your niche (food) by personalizing the message.

That’s bridge marketing.

Now, how can you apply bridge marketing to your Instagram Marketing strategy?

Here’s how:

Every time you advertise on Instagram make sure to segment your campaigns, and then create personalized ads for each segment.

Remember: The more specific your segments are, the more compelling your advertising message will be.

You can segment your campaigns based on:

Gender

Location

Age

Niche

For instance, let’s say you’re a company that sells energy drinks and you decide to try Instagram Ads to increase brand awareness and purchase intent.

Instead of just creating one single ad and targeting your campaign to everyone who is interested in energy drinks (as most people do), you should start by segmenting your audience.

Example:

Segment a) 30 to 45-year old women, based on Washington, fitness enthusiast

Segment b) 25 to 40-year old men, based on Seattle, motocross lover

Segment c) 20 to 35-year old women, based on New York, snowboarding fan

Then, you should create a customized ad (including imagery and copy) for each segment. By taking this approach, people will feel more related to your brand and you’ll be able to reach more niche markets.

Tactic # 6: Use analytics to identify top performing photos, then post more of what works.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to social media is to post content they “think” their audience will love.

Yes, sometimes they can get a stroke of luck and people react very positively to their content , but more often than not, they fail.

It’s much more effective to share photos or videos that have a proven record of success — I mean, look for content that people have already shared and loved and then create something based on that information.

By no means I’m saying you should copy other people’s content, but you need to model what they’re doing.

That way, all the content you share will perform much better.

Here’s a process you can use to find proven ideas:

Step 1: Create a list of the 20 most popular Instagram accounts in your industry

Step 7: Check out your email and look for your report. Once you open it, you should see something like this:

If you scroll down, you’ll find a section called “Top Posts”. These are the most performing posts of the person you’re analyzing.

Analyze that information and make notes of what you find.

Step 8: Repeat the process with each account in your list and look for patterns (you need to sign up for a free trial).

Try to find what elements successful accounts have in common. What kind of content they share? How often they share it? What kinds of filters they use? What kind of language they use? By finding these elements you’ll be able to achieve better results.

Step 9: Create more content based on the information you found

With all the information you found in the prior steps, start developing a new strategy.

Tactic # 7: Start on Instagram, Finish on Facebook

Here’s the deal:

If you only market your products or services on Instagram you’re leaving a TON of money on the table.

Here’s what I mean:

The ICONIC (an Australian-based online fashion and footwear store) recently launched an Instagram campaign — their goal was to increase brand awareness among Australian women, but also increase sales of their new clothes.

They crafted a handful of photos especially for the campaign and featured them in the newsfeed of their target audience.

The response was awesome — women started to engage very positively.

But THE ICONIC didn’t stop there.

One week later, they launched a new campaign on Facebook targeting similar interests and demographics as they did on Instagram.

Want to know the results?

Women that saw the campaign on both Instagram and Facebook converted 23% better than people who only saw it on one of the two social networks.

Conclusion

As you can see, Instagram can be a sales generating machine when you know how to use it properly. If you apply the tactics and concepts that you’ve learned today, you’ll be able to get the most out of this amazing social network.

What other tactics do you know to market your products or services through Instagram?

Joel is our fearless leader. Brought up on dial-up, and knowing the pains of AltaVista, he's unique skill set is the driving force of our biggest clients success. With a background in Advertising & Strategy and experience across high growth startups in Finance, Insurance, Property, Mobile Apps and eCommerce, Joel helps our clients get clear on what is needed to make their business grow.